Lid: TimBazzett

Tim, the books listed here are just a small proportion of my library too. I try and read at least a book a week, but that very much depends on my work. I have not done any military service. In fact I was the first of my family for 140 years not to join the Army. The previous generations, including my father and grandfather were Regular (i.e. not conscripted) soldiers, all joining at the age of 15 (and mostly the same regiment, the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders). I have written a couple of pieces about my grandfather for the Hellfire Corner website. I try and get to the First World War battlefields as often as I can but didn't make it last year. I am a member of The Western Front Association, which has an American Branch (in fact I think there may be more than one). My family lost two members in the First World War, one in France and one in East Africa. All came through the Second World War, including my Dad, although there were a few close calls.
At the moment I am reading The Unknown Soldier by Neil Hanson which I can thoroughly recommend.
All the best, John.

door CountryJoe53 op 7:01 pm (EST) om Mar 1, 2010

Hi Tim - best wishes for your birthday and hope you've had a good time celebrating! Thanks for the recommendations - I've just ordered a copy of Merle's Door and added yours to my wishlist.

door litlove2 op 4:18 pm (EST) om Feb 2, 2010

Well, Tim, I'm definitely jealous about your book swap deal...have to admit it. I'm going to take a look at Joyce's other books when I get the chance to hunt them up. I'm a real fan of memoirs and she has a particular talent for the genre. I just finished reading Abraham Verghese's "Cutting for Stone" and found it intriguing for a couple of reasons: the portrayal of life and politics in Ethiopia for half a century and the huge amount of medical detail included in the storyline. Now I have to find Verghese's nonfiction work. That's always the way it seems to work - one book leads to the other and dozens stack up waiting their turn. (And, yes, we are of a similar age. I will turn 62 at the end of June. Thanks for getting in touch.

door SamSattler op 8:37 pm (EST) om Feb 1, 2010

Hi Tim, thanks for adding me to your friends list. I hope to be making some more on the site in the not-too-distant future as I've taken your advice and upgraded to a lifetime membership. I'll now also be able to update my catalogue and join in a few interesting group chats at leisure. I really enjoy perusing the site and now hope to enjoy becoming a more active member. It is nice to know there are so many like-minded folk on hand for a bookish chat. I'm already a member of a 'real' reading group but it's more like a social get-together really because once we crack open the wine our book of the month hardly gets a mention!
I'll be looking up your own books on Amazon too, and thanks for the dog book recommendation. I've just started reading one entitled Niki: the Story of a Dog by Tibor Derby - about a couple living in communist Hungary following WWII, adopted by Niki, the Fox Terrier of the title.
You guessed right about my gender identity but I have the more commonly male y ending. Say Hi to your Terri for me and keep me posted.
Terry...

door litlove2 op 4:01 pm (EST) om Jan 28, 2010

Thanks for the book recommendation. I'm surprised you haven't received your review copy yet - mine came immediately. I really enjoyed the book, and I hope others will too. The last couple of books I reviewed I also left a copy of the review on Amazon's site. If it only encourages one new reader its worthwhile.

door jrbeach op 11:15 am (EST) om Jan 27, 2010

Hi Tim, how lovely to 'meet' you! What do we have in common... well, a love of books and reading for starters! Sadly, I'm not yet a writer as I see you are. Congratulations on getting your work published and on its good sales. Like many readers I, too, have a desire to write a book one day but am still all at sea as to how and when and where to begin. I guess an original idea would be as good a starting point as any, if only I had one! Do you mind me asking at what age you began writing with a view to getting published, and when you were first published? I've visited your rathole - sorry, website! and think you have four interesting-looking books/memoirs already published. I'd like to read one and perhaps you'd be kind enough to recommend the one you think I'd find most interesting, perhaps after you've learnt a little more about me. Or, if they're written chronologically, maybe I should just begin and the beginning.

I can see you're a much more widely-read and prolific reader than I am, although I'd love to read faster and more, and I can see we share the same adage - 'so little time, so many books'. Remember the days before PCs and when TVs had only 3 channels to idstract us?! I have, of course, read many more books than are listed in my library - I'm still building on it and these are just the most recent/remembered, and I'm just deciding whether to become a lifetime member as I've now reached my free/public account Librarything limit. According to our catalogued libraries we only have nine in common but I can see we share an interest in war writing. I'm a big fan of the WWI poets and enjoyed Robert Graves' autobiography, Goodbye to All That. I was moved to tears by Erich Remarque's, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Vera Brittain's autobiographical account of WWI, Testament of Youth. This, together with Letters from a Lost Generation, a selection of the correspondence exchanged between Vera Brittain and three young men in the trenches, has got to be in my top 20 most memorable and moving reads ever. I've also just got a copy of Vera's edited war diaries which she drew on when writing Testament of Youth, published 15 years after the war ended.

I also notice we share a similar sense of humour as we both rated Deaf Sentence by David Lodge a 5 star read. Hilarious - I loved it: it made me laugh aloud but was also quite touching too. Have you read anything else by Lodge? I'd highly recommend Nice Work since I notice you have an academic background. Can you recommend any other laugh alouds? I originally bought Rachel Cusk's book, A Life's Work, for my daughter who works full time and has a beautiful 2year old but was/is finding many aspects of motherhood challenging. I thought it was wonderfully written and a brutally honest account of one woman's experience that everyone should read (male and female) no matter how uncomfotable it makes them feel. I can see why it was controversial when it was first published but it did my daughter the power of good knowing that she was not alone with her feelings of... ambivalence.

I suspect you've guessed my gender by now... And you're right - my Merseyside is the very same one made famous in part by Gerry and the Pacemakers, who I am familiar with as I live fairly close to their legacy, the River Mersey (about 20 miles away from the river/city, in the seaside town of Southport) and was born in June 1959. Apart from us both being book lovers and grandparents I think we're also dog lovers. Your Tibbie looks adorable and you've inspired me to replace my dreary profile picture with one of my three year-old Bichon Frise, Phoebe. It's not the best picture I have of her but I'm on a new laptop so it's the most recent/closest to hand, taken in the rare but seasonal snowfall here this Christmas.

It'd be lovely to hear from you again if you have time to tell me more about yourself and your reading and writing and - excuse my ignorance - but what and where in the US is MI?

Cheers Tim! Terry.

door litlove2 op 5:45 pm (EST) om Jan 25, 2010

Hi, thanks for your comments. I've read The Junior Officers' Reading Club and liked it. I actually gave it 4,5 stars on my website www.boekenstrijd.nl which is in Dutch (Dûh).
I end my review as follows: "This book is no simple description, and certainly no anti-war book. It offers a soulseaching diagnosis of combat and its impact. Hennessey has obviously been inspired by the classic Dispatches of Michael Herr. He doesn't quite reach that level, but comes near in the final chapters."

door boekenstrijd op 2:02 pm (EST) om Jan 17, 2010

Hello, Wrexham is in North Wales, on the border with England not far from Liverpool and Chester. I was not that keen on the Edgar Sawtelle book, I love dogs but found the book long winded. Thanks for saying my library is eclectic - it is made up of many book recommendations from other LTers and blogs!

door cerievans1 op 12:15 pm (EST) om Jan 17, 2010

hi Tim,
As you can see from this i don't check my librarything very often. yes, i knew Fred Ignatoski, he was a wildlife biologist I worked with way back. Thanks for your suggestions - i'll look for Abbey's book and Jager's as well.
Lupton is northeast of Westbranch. Cheers, Ned

door ncaveney op 11:56 am (EST) om Jan 8, 2010

Thanks for the tip, Tim. I definitely will hunt this book down. I'm occupied at the moment in clearing out my university office of 35 years of lecture notes, grade books, copies of letters of recommendation, etc. I retired on Monday, so now I have more time to read, and write. Best of the New Year to you, and thanks again for the heads-up on this!
Walt

door bookwalter op 6:35 pm (EST) om Jan 5, 2010

Thanks for your note. I am always taken aback when folks i don't know post notes..it's grand when the notes are Positive...teeth-gnashing when they aren't so...thanks for the recommendation. i have taken it under advisement ( ;-} ) and placed it on my teetering Wishlist.....i hope that bad cookie doesn't crumble any time soon.

best to You
J

door jdthloue op 11:04 am (EST) om Jan 4, 2010

Happy New Year, Tim. Thanks for the recommendation. I like the title a lot.

door LiterateHousewife op 9:57 pm (EST) om Jan 3, 2010

Hi Tim, just read you review of the latest David Lodge book. It was great to see a different opinion of the book as I was quite disappointed which was a shame as I love his other work. Cheers, James

door withwill op 7:23 am (EST) om Jan 2, 2010